Not Your Average Joe – A Christmas Sermon

I love Christmas music. Some of you might be groaning right now, or think it’s a little weird, but I happily embrace all of it. No, wait. I take that back. You can keep “Santa Baby”. If I never hear that one again, I’ll be fine. As for the rest of them, I play them the day after Thanksgiving until I take the tree down. I love the joyful and the sentimental, the oldies and the newbies, the classics and the carols. Almost anything or anyone can be (and most likely is) the subject of a Christmas song. Trees, stars, Bethlehem, reindeer, snowmen, Santa, Mary, shepherds, Wise Men, Jesus, a drummer boy… Only one person is missing from this list. Joseph. There are almost no songs written about him, and those that exist are pretty obscure. Can you think of one off the top of your head? Go ahead – I’ll wait…
He is mentioned in the 4th verse of Angels We Have Heard on High. If you are a ‘For King and Country’ fan, you’ll know they wrote one called “The Carol of Joseph” that’s quite good. But how many people know that one or can sing it? You get the point.
I think Joseph is the forgotten hero in the Christmas story. For much of my early life I struggled with my identity, or really, with feeling like I had an identity of my own.  I often felt I was only known by who I was related to. As a child I was Larry and Betty’s daughter, or Rebekah’s sister. As an adult I was Barry’s wife, or Tyler and Kelli’s mom. In modern times, Joseph has a similar plight. (Mary’s husband. Jesus’ dad.) Mostly he’s just the tall guy in the nativity scene.

The Jewish culture was of course patriarchal; so in first century Israel, Joseph would have been known and respected, a craftsman in his town, and the leader of his family. In Luke 4 Jesus is teaching in a synagogue in Nazareth, and he astounds his Jewish audience, and their response is: “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?” In John 6 He is in the synagogue in Capernaum, and there his teaching upsets and angers the Jews. They say, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” Two towns, 40 miles away from each other, and still everyone knew who he was.
In our rush to “get to the good parts” of the Christmas story, we tend to skip past Joseph. We miss out on this man who likely formed and shaped much of Jesus’ personality and character.

We know that Jesus was born without sin, and he never sinned throughout his life, but I don’t think that means he was born speaking in parables or walking on water, or able to build a rocking chair. He had to learn – he had to be taught how to walk, and speak, and use a hammer. He learned the Scriptures. This means he spent a LOT of time with Joseph.
The Jewish father played a distinctive role as the educator of his sons. This duty was fulfilled not merely by financing their formal education; he was also expected to socialize his children into the life of the Jewish community, and to represent its values and interests within the home. He would have taught them the traditions, rituals, ceremonies, prayers, and feasts. If any of you are familiar with the Passover feast, Jesus would have been one of the children asking the questions or searching for the hidden piece of matzah.
Add on to that the fact that Joseph was a carpenter, and we know Jesus became a carpenter. This means He was an apprentice to his earthly father. From the time he was a boy, most of his waking hours would have been spent with Joseph, in the workshop learning the trade, or the marketplace, or maybe even traveling to nearby villages to sell their goods. They were together, talking, praying, telling jokes, and throwing sawdust at each other (well, maybe!)

We don’t usually put a lot of thought into the significance of his role in Jesus’ life or what we can learn from him, but when we think about it, we realize Joseph was just as chosen as Mary was.
Why Joseph? What was it about him? What did God see in him that He would choose this man for such an incredible responsibility?

• Joseph was a Godly Man.

Matthew 1:18-19 “The mother of Jesus Christ was Mary. And this is how the birth of Jesus came about. Mary was engaged to marry Joseph. But before they married, she learned that she was going to have a baby. She was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary’s husband, Joseph, was a good man. He did not want to disgrace her in public, so he planned to divorce her secretly.”

Joseph here is called a “good man”. Other translations call him a just man, an honorable man, or a righteous man. The Good News Translation puts it this way, “Joseph was a man who always did what was right.”
Now engagement then was a little different than it is today. Back then it was just as binding as being married, you just weren’t living together yet. The only way to get out of it was through divorce. Mary was in danger of being exposed to shame. But she was also in danger of being condemned to death. Joseph had every right by law to put her through a public trial, where she could have been stoned for infidelity.  Had she been connected with a cruel, passionate, and violent man, she might have died in disgrace. But God had so ordered it that she was betrothed to a man filled with grace and compassion.  We see in him a gentleness and maturity. A righteous man, but not a man full of himself. He was not quick to judge or to react with hurt and anger. He was a man seeking to do the right thing – beyond what the law said. His idea was to divorce her quietly. This means instead of a public trial they could have legally separated with just two witnesses.  Doing it this way would have protected her as much as he could, given the situation.
Joseph, no doubt took this troubling matter to God in prayer, and we can see in the following verses that God answered him with some divine assurance.

Matthew 1:20-21 ”While Joseph thought about this, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, descendant of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife. The baby in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son. You will name the son Jesus.”

The angel starts his message in the same way as to Zechariah, Mary, and the shepherds – “Don’t be afraid…”.  However, in those instances, the angel is implying “Don’t be afraid (of me)” and that’s not the message here. Maybe it’s different because this is dream, I don’t know. But here the angel is saying “Don’t be afraid – to do what God is calling you to do. Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife. The baby she is carrying is the Messiah, He will save all people from their sins. You WILL name him Jesus.” And by naming him, Joseph was legally and publicly claiming him, adopting him, as his own. The reality of the Incarnation required the Son of God to share the human condition by having a human heritage and an upbringing by a human father. 

This was a risk! He was risking his own reputation, possibly business opportunities or family relationships. He was risking his future and letting go of the idea of a “normal family life”. He was also taking a risk raising the son of God!  Let’s think about this. Parenting is not for the faint of heart! I know we say that our kids really belong to God, that we only have them “on loan”, but think if your child was actually God’s son! Babies don’t come with instructions! And I promise, mistakes were made. We know about one of them. In Luke chapter 2 it tells us how when Jesus was 12, they were in Jerusalem for Passover and then Joseph and Mary headed home without him! THEY LOST HIM. FOR THREE DAYS! Now having raised a 12-year-old boy, I can’t blame them too much. But still. Can you imagine Joseph’s prayers? “Oh gracious and most forgiving God…so, You know that child you sent us… the one who’s gonna save the world… would You mind helping us find Him…”
All that aside, God the Father picked this man to play a key role in His Son’s life, to teach Him, to love Him, to be His substitute. God shows us, through Joseph, the importance he places on fathers.
And the angel’s message is “Don’t be afraid.”

• Joseph received revelation from God

So there are 21 dreams recorded in the Bible (and I am differentiating between dreams and visions). Most of these occur in the Old Testament, and none occur after the book of Matthew. They are a method of divine Communication, whether they are symbolic like the dreams of Old Testament Joseph or Daniel, or whether they come with specific instructions as received by Jacob, or the Magi.

And Joseph had 4 of those 21 dreams. In the Vineyard church we would say that he operated in the prophetic.

We’ve already read about the first dream where Joseph is instructed to take Mary as his wife and raise the baby as his own. Sometime after Jesus is born, and after the visits of the shepherds and Magi, we learn about the second dream:
Matthew 2:13 ^{– “}After they left, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream. The angel said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Herod will start looking for the child to kill him. Stay in Egypt until I tell you to return.”
I love how nonchalant Matthew is right here. This one verse is like the opening plot of an action movie. Later on in the story when the family had been living in Egypt for a bit, we come to the next dream:
Matthew 2:19-20 “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream. This happened while Joseph was in Egypt. ²⁰ The angel said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and go to Israel. The people who were trying to kill the child are now dead.”
And while they are traveling back, trying to determine where to settle down, we see mention of the last dream:
verse 22 “But he heard that Archelaus was now king in Judea. Archelaus became king when his father Herod died. So Joseph was afraid to go there. After being warned in a dream…”

He could be called “a man of dreams” – a title given to his namesake, the Joseph of the Old Testament. There are several parallels between the two that are interesting – the association with dreams, living in Egypt, escaping death threats, and faithfully fulfilling the responsibility given to them.

In these dreams we read that it is “the angel of the Lord” who appears. This exact phrase is found consistently in the Old Testament as the one who is sent with the most important messages. The angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar, Abraham, Moses, the people of Israel, Gideon, Balaam, Elijah, and the high priest Joshua.
The Lord commonly reveals in dreams his plans for His people and the role they are supposed to play in those plans. We see examples of this with Abraham, Abimelech, Laban, Jacob, Old Testament Joseph, Samuel, Nathan, Solomon, and Daniel.

Joseph is in good company here! The same way that God communicated to the patriarchs and prophets in the Old Testament, through the angel of the Lord in dreams, he receives his calling and his mission.  He receives revelation about the identity of the child Jesus, who will save the people from their sins. He then receives subsequent messages about how he is to cooperate in that work of salvation by guarding and protecting the child and His mother. Joseph is the final link in the line of the Old Testament patriarchs who await the fulfillment of the promise of the New Covenant.

• Joseph was obedient

It is not enough though, that Joseph received all these revelations. What he did afterwards is important. His response to those dreams is one of the most important things we can learn from him.

Matthew 1:24 ”When Joseph woke up, he did what the Lord’s angel had told him to do.”

Matthew 2:14 “So Joseph got up and left for Egypt during the night with the child and his mother.”

Matthew 2:21-22 “So Joseph took the child and his mother and went to Israel. ²² But he heard that Archelaus was now king in Judea. Archelaus became king when his father Herod died. So Joseph was afraid to go there. After being warned in a dream, he went to the area of Galilee.“

Let’s start by noticing what he did NOT do. He did not start chatting with Mary over breakfast the next morning, “I think there was something wrong with that lamb we had last night – I had the weirdest dream.” He did NOT go hang out with the guys, saying “You will never guess what this angel said to me in my sleep last night – what do you think it means?” (Disclaimer: if you have what you think might be a prophetic dream that you are unsure about, it’s good to talk and pray through it with your spouse, or a friend, or mentor). But Joseph’s dream was clear. Difficult, but clear. He knew God’s voice, and he was obedient. He got up. He did.  He took. He went. He was a man of action. He could have wondered – Was it really an angel? Did God mean right now? Can I prep first? Mary’s going to want to go shopping…But he woke Mary up, said pack the baby, I’m getting the donkey, we’re going to Egypt.

This takes a tremendous amount of faith. A good friend said to me this week, I just wish God would write me a letter. I want things to be explained, to be clear. Sometimes we think how easy it would be if an angel would show up and tell us what we should do. We want a sign, and we want it to be a big neon billboard. At first that sounds great right? But would that really work? Or would we still argue? Would we still question? Look at Gideon – who received very clear instructions from an angel – and he decided he wanted to put God through a miracle obstacle course. Or remember Zechariah. He scoffed at his angelic visit and suffered the consequence of not being able to speak for several months. Moses had a bush on fire that was talking to him, and still he argued.

 There are so many ways the Lord uses to speak to us. He still uses dreams and visions, He still sends angels. He speaks to us through His Word, or directly to our spirits. He may speak to us out loud, or through a friend. The most important thing is that he WANTS to have relationship with us, He wants that communication.

Just a few Bible verses to go on, and we can still see in Joseph someone who was seeking God’s kingdom and not man’s. He did not choose the easy path, but instead was searching for God’s heart in the situations he was facing. If obedience was easy everyone would do it. But it’s hard. And that’s one of the things that is remarkable about Joseph. His instinct, his nature, was to trust God and obey. That doesn’t happen overnight, it is the result of a life of seeking after God and getting to know Him. It does take time and practice to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit, especially when we have so many other things competing for our attention.
When the Holy Spirit speaks to you, don’t be afraid to do what God is calling you to. Take the risk. It might be as small as buying a cup of coffee for a person on the street, or praying for your server at a restaurant, or it might be as big as picking up your life and moving across the world to be missionaries. We don’t have to be afraid of that, because God’s plan for our lives is good. This is something that takes time and practice too. The Bible says “Taste and see that the Lord is good…” As we take those small steps, our faith and trust grows, and it becomes easier to take those big steps. Living a life of faith can become our second nature.
Those are some of the things I think we can learn from Joseph. And maybe, just maybe, he is a little more important than we’ve given him credit for.